Tesla and wise moves for Nevada

By Gary Musser, Las Vegas

Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014 | 2:01 a.m.

Brian Greenspun, a proud owner of the best car in the world, got it right.

Now that our brothers and sisters to the north will have one of the world’s greatest factories, which will speed the production of electric cars and help reduce global warming, let’s focus on us in the south next.

He suggested that the Legislature focus on developing a good medical school here, helping UNLV grow and fixing Clark County schools.

These moves would help the state recruit more businesses like Tesla.

Review-Journal columnist John Smith also put the Tesla deal in a reasonable light. Yet others, especially the R-J editor, continue to complain. Steve Sebelius shared some complaints by focusing on comments by Richard Florida, an urban studies expert from California. The Sun also ran a column by Florida about the Tesla deal.

I think Florida was simply crying because we got the plant and California did not.

However, he did make a one point that we all should focus on. He said “most economic development incentives are a senseless waste of taxpayer money.”

The Tesla plant will produce valuable products the state can be proud of, and it will have 6,000 decent-paying, full-time jobs.

However, we in Las Vegas are currently being sold a bill of goods in the form of a soccer stadium.

If the stadium, which will foster low-paying jobs, is such a good investment, the developers should go raise private capital.

To salvage this mess, let me propose that the mayor work with UNLV and the casinos to build a multiuse stadium on UNLV property. Now that makes good sense and is something we all could be proud of.